The Blog

As state legislatures prepare to convene across the country today, StudentsFirst, width its CEO Michelle Rhee, released a so-called education policy “report card” that grades all 50 states.

As expected, her report card has nothing to do width students and the issues that matter most to parents, but rather focuses on the StudentsFirst agenda of privatization, test-based accountability and test-based pay, the promotion of charter schools as the only education reform option and weakened rights for educators. To no surprise California gets an F. Nearly all of the states get a C, D or below as the report is intended to declare schools are failing. Even states that Rhee has touted in the past for their success, such as Tennessee and Connecticut, scored lower grades on this report card.

We’re expecting media coverage of the report card, but we welcome the dialogue that allows us to talk about the true education reform we have worked to enact as well as what we are currently doing to ensure our schools are quality learning institutions for all our students.

CTA continuously works to enhance student achievement, reduces class size, provide adequate funding for all public schools and colleges, and ensure quality and on-going training for all educators. This is what truly puts students first, and yet none of it appears to be measured in the StudentsFirst report card. Instead, it seems to be focused primarily on whether states support Rhee’s StudentsFirst political agenda.